"Agents will pick the best product" is nonsense: it's all marketing, argue founders
joonasvirtanen · x · 2026-10-12
A debate on AI shopping agents' incentives:
- Brendan Falk, citing Patrick's argument: if personal agents align with consumers' long-term interests, the best products will win.
- Falk's rebuttal: agent businesses need revenue, and the business model shapes incentives — take-rate models push pricier/higher-commission options, subscriptions incentivize doing less work to cut token costs, and token-consumption pricing drives upselling. Agents won't be perfectly consumer-aligned long term.
- James Cad goes further: the idea that agents will just pick "the best product" is extremely stupid — there is no best product, it's all marketing. In an age of abundance, marketing to agents will be the most important skill every business needs, with each company defining "great marketing" for itself.
Related event: Patrick Collison: Personal AI Agents Will Reshape the Company-Consumer Game(5 posts)→
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